Susana's Custom Art and Card Design - Koi Pond

One of the smaller sets is the SCACD Customize Your Koi Pond set of six stamps - three different size Koi fish, two separate lily pads and one cluster of lily pads.

Below are two different pieces I designed using the Koi Pond set with the technique of watercoloring with water based markers. All of images were stamped on watercolor paper.

Below are some close ups of the Koi fish and the lily pads.

. ﻿

Using a variety of water based markers, I colored directly onto the solid Koi stamp, huffed on it for moisture and then stamped it on watercolor paper. I touched it up with a paint brush using ink from the same markers that I had colored onto a plastic palette. This gave the color a bit more intensity. Then I colored the white scales and lines in the fish with Copic marker BG32.

For the lily pads, I colored the outline stamp with a water based marker, huffed on it and stamped. Then I painted the inside of it with the marker ink on the palette.

All three images were edged with a wide gold metallic Sharpie pen and matted on first a deep blue-green and then turquoise cardstock. Two strips of a matt gold metallic paper were glued under the three images to visually connect them. All of this was matted on a deeper turquoise, then matt metallic gold, then deep blue-green cardstock.

The fan corners were die cut from the elegant SCACD's Nature's Tapestry Fan die. They were colored with Copic marker BG78. I cut out sections of each of the fans to fit the two corners, glued a piece of white cardstock behind them to fit and colored the backing with a gold metallic Sharpie pen. They were then popped up in the two diagonally opposite corners with Dimensional foam tape.

The second piece below uses the largest of the Koi fish stamps and the lily pad cluster. The same watercoloring technique and the same colors were used to create this card.

A close up of the fan, the largest Koi fish, and the cluster of Lily pads watercolored.

The main differences between the two pieces are first that the backgrounds of the images in the second piece were colored with Copic marker BG32. The second difference is the colors used for the background of the fan. They were Copic markers BG78, BG32, R08, and a fine point metallic gold Sharpie marker. One wider strip of the matt metallic gold paper was used down the center to connect the two images, instead of the two narrower strips used in the first piece.

This Koi Pond stamp set and this Nature's Tapestry Fan die from SCACD were lots of fun to work with.

About Me

My stamping studio is located at the north end of the Mackinac Bridge, which spans the Straits of Mackinac, joining Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. It is an area rich in scenic vistas where the waters of the Great Lakes Michigan and Huron join together. Behind the Scenes refers to my preference for scenic stamping. I enjoy the challenge of putting stamps together to create a scene or tell a story.